seventeen forever
by BerryliciousCheerio
Summary: Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posy. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. They story of one girl that grows up far too soon. Rated T for a reason.


**Alright, here's my first try at Cat-centric one shots. Basically just Cat's life from age 12-17. Oh, and no, I haven't magically obtained Victorious in the time between my last posting and now.**

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* * *

It took exactly seventeen seconds for Catarina Valentine's world to explode in a shower of red. She was twelve.

* * *

When she was thirteen, her dad brought home a strange little boy named Michael, whom he claimed was her brother (half brother, really, but he knew that she knew that already). He said that Michael's mother had recently died and that he'd be living with them.

Catarina figured he was just trying to patch up the empty space her mother and sister had left.

* * *

When she was fourteen, she dyed her hair. She found a box of color in her mother's dresser drawer. She wasn't sure why she was there, probably because her father had told her to clean up the house a little.

Either way, she found it and it reminded her of red velvet cupcakes and laughter and sunshine and all the things that no long existed in the Valentine household. One hour and several stains later, she had reddish fuchsia hair and an angry father.

Her brother, who had renamed her Cat, said in a little kid lisp, "It's weally, weally pwetty Cat." She felt a little better, even though she tried to remind herself that this little kid was the product of an affair that ruined her world, but no matter how much she thought about that, he was just so adorable that she couldn't help but break out in a huge grin.

* * *

She was fourteen and a half when her father brought home a woman named Baylie. He told her that she was her and Michael's new mom. Baylie was sweet, but obviously not used to kids. When Baylie moved into her mother's room (technically her parent's room, but her father was never around), Cat snuck in quietly to save the last that she had of her mother. She found pictures, barrettes, brushes, and one bottle of pills.

She took one pill, and could forget about car crashes and blood and black and people whispering _I'm so sorry._

* * *

That summer, she went to a performing arts camp. It was Baylie's idea, really, but her dad claims it was all his. While she was there she met a scout for some school in Southern California, home of sunshine and plastic surgery and zero calories.

He sees her singing a song with a girl named Jade for an assignment and offers them both a scholarship. And Cat's happy about that because she gets along with Jade (she's always happy and Jade's always not and it just works for them) and she's always wanted to be a performer. When she gets home, she tells her dad and Baylie and Michael.

Michael and Baylie are ecstatic for her, but her father just stomped out and yelled that he was going down to the bar and he'd be back before four a.m. When he came back, he screamed at Baylie when she suggested that they sell the house and move to a small suburb near Hollywood.

Cat was crouched just outside the kitchen when she heard the sharp crack of a fist hitting flesh.

* * *

She was fifteen when she discovered that a small kitchen knife could make her forget just as well as her mother's pills. She came to this realization when she found only seven more pills in her bottle. She never made any big cuts. Just small ones on the sides of her wrists (only the left, she never was very sure why). No one even noticed, even Jade, her best friend, never suspected that she'd ever do something like that. She was Cat. Cat was too happy, too naïve for something like that.

* * *

At sixteen, Baylie left. She just was there the night before, and gone the next morning. Her father speaks nothing of it, as if Baylie hadn't been a part of their lives for a year and a half. Cat screamed at him, begged him to show some emotion. He told her to shut up.

* * *

It took exactly seventeen years for Catarina Valentine's world to crumble under the weight of secrets and white lies and not so white lies.

* * *

It was the cemetery's grounds-man that found her, still and silent, curled up next to two small headstones reading the names _Jennifer Valentine, Doting Mother _and _Carling Valentine, Loving Sister_.

* * *

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**Okay, I kind of hate the ending, but otherwise, I think it's okay. I know that there's TONS of room for improvement, so please, review **_**constructively**_**. Thanks! Alright, Brandi out**


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